Portal: Alice
by MRKR
Summary: Alice is 19 and unemployed. That is, until she sees an ad in the paper seeking anyone "with a desire to partake in the scientific advancements of today, building a better tomorrow"...
1. The Interview

In a desolate part of this city, a large, white, windowless building towers over an empty parking lot, watching over the rest of the city. The people think nothing of it. They go about their daily business, almost oblivious to the fact that the building exists. They don't find it the least bit strange that no motor vehicles have entered the parking lot since the macadam had been laid five years ago, nor do they find it disturbing that every night, the giant logo on the face of this concrete titan shines brightly in the distance, white as a pearl, shouting a name out to all who care to look in its general direction: Aperture Science.

Just last week, Aperture began buying ad space in the Classified section of the local newspaper, seeking employees "with a desire to partake in the scientific advancements of today, building a better tomorrow." Two days ago, Alice Brenner rolled her eyes as she read the advertisement over her bowl of Captain Crunch. Now, in her black Volkswagen Passat, steadily cruising past the thin trees which line the street, she wishes she had not rolled her eyes. As her car draws her nearer to the large white Aperture Science building, she actually regrets it.

Shortly after laughing at the ad, she had circled it with her blue pen. A few hours later, she was on the phone with the Aperture Human Resources department, discussing hours and pay rates. They offered her a position as secretary of Mr. Gregory Hill, president of Aperture Science. It had shocked her that they would offer a position of such importance to a nineteen year old blonde girl with no previous employers or experience.

"Are you serious?" she had asked.

"Only if you are." the man on the other end of the line had answered.

"I am. I'm serious. I need this job, I just... I just don't think I'm qualified– "

"Do you have people skills?"

"Well, I suppose..."

"Can you talk to people– complete strangers– courteously and professionally?"

"Yes, I can, but–"

"You're more than qualified for the job, Ms. Brenner. Mr. Hill will contact you himself for a phone interview tomorrow. Welcome to Aperture Science, Alice."

And that was that. They had promised to pay her 12.00 an hour– to start! As she approached the small white guard shack on the edge of the parking lot, she noticed there was nobody occupying it. _That's strange_, she thought,_ You would think a big, important-looking building like this would be under watch 24-7._ It wasn't that much of a surprise, really. She had been informed that she may not see a guard. She slowly pulled up alongside the shack, lowered her window, and swiped the card she had found in her mailbox, just as she had been told. Slowly, the metal bar that had separated the parking lot from the rest of the world lifted. Alice took her foot off the brake and rolled into the large field of macadam. The Volkswagen pulled into a parking spot about five or six away from the closest space to the building. She didn't want to look over-zealous, after all. She turned the key, and the car died.

Looking through the passenger-side window, Alice could see the tall glass doors which were her entry to the large white facility. Through the doors, she saw a large desk made of black marble, bearing the same white logo from the side of the building: a ring. A panel on the wall behind the desk quickly slid open, and a man in a white full-body bio-hazard suit emerged, carrying a white object. It looked like a vertical oval and had four little legs and a red "eye" on the center of it. The man and object disappeared to the left of the glass doors.

"Hmm. Science-y." Alice said aloud to herself, grabbing the handle to the car door.

She stepped out into the parking lot and closed the door. Looking at her reflection in the window, Alice checked to make sure everything was in just the right place. Her blonde hair was pulled up into a tight, business-like bun on the top of her head, and her eyeliner had not smudged. Her bright blue eyes pierced into the reflection as they moved lower, checking the rest of her. Her navy blue coat was held closed by just one button over her bellybutton. Underneath that, her white blouse was neatly buttoned, save for the top three buttons, which exposed the top of her 36" B chest and black bra. Her skirt matched her coat and the bottom of it rested neatly at the middle of her thighs. She looked down at her feet and smiled. She was wearing black slip-ons with flat heels. _Thank God for comfy shoes._ Feeling quite satisfied with herself, she began to walk around the car and approach the front doors.

As she made her way across the parking lot, a feeling of dread came over her as she remembered her conversation with Mr. Hill.

He had called in the afternoon. Alice had just finished her run on her treadmill, and was out of breath.

"Hello...?" she had answered in between gasps.

"Hello? Is Ms. Alice Brenner there?" Mr. Hill had asked.

"This... this is her."

"Alice... this is Greg Hill of Aperture Science... um, is everything alright?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. Everything is fine. You just caught me right after a run."

"Ah. A fitness fanatic, are you?"

"I wouldn't say 'fanatic', but I do enjoy exercise from time to time." she said as she pulled her hair out of her face.

"That I can understand. My Gladys works me right to the bone. But I can't complain. I'm in the best shape I've seen for a man in his sixties."

"Gladys... is that your wife, Mr. Hill?"

"Oh... I'm afraid not, Alice," he laughed. "Gladys is my assistant. You will come to know her quite well as my secretary. Speaking of which, I'd like to ask you a few questions before tomorrow."

"Sure, sure. Go right ahead."

"It says here you're... nineteen. Is that correct?"

"Yes, sir. Nineteen and eight months."

"Very good. Exercising at nineteen? You're a very disciplined young woman, aren't you?"

"Well, I thank you for saying so, Mr. Hill, but I'm afraid a run on a treadmill once every three weeks wouldn't exactly be classified as 'discipline'."

He laughed.

"Yes. I suppose it wouldn't be. Now, do you have any idea what we do here at Aperture, Alice?"

"Well, I know Aperture is a research and development corporation. I don't know of anything you've developed, I'm afraid."

"Hm. Yes. Not many do. You see, we're more of a weapons developer. So I'm afraid the majority of the people who have heard of Aperture are positioned in the military."

"I see..."

"Oh, but we do much more than that. We've developed a defense system that renders all weapons useless through the use of electro-magnetic waves, and we have also created a few teleportation prototypes. All of which, of course, were not tested on humans."

"Teleportation?... Wow. Just– wow."

"Sounds interesting, I presume?"

"Well, yeah! I mean– teleporters?! It sounds wicked, Mr. Hill."

"Yes. 'Wicked'."

Alice smiled to herself as she imagined what Mr. Hill was experiencing on the other end of the line. His face may have been cold as stone, and she was sure his eyes showed a twinge of annoyance. He cleared his throat, and Alice was so busy imagining how uncomfortable Mr. Hill was, she actually jumped with the phone in her hand.

"So, Alice... are you interested in joining the Aperture Science team?"

"Am I?" her heart began to race and her face flushed. "Of course I am, Mr. Hill. I would be honored."

"Alright then. You will start tomorrow at nine a.m..You do know how to get to our facility, I assume?"

"Yes, I do."

"Good. You will need a physical examination, which will be given to you upon your arrival at Aperture. Gladys will be conducting the exam. It seems you'll be getting to know her sooner than you think."

"Wait. I'll be getting a physical at the building?"

"Well, yes. We are a science company, Alice. There are many doctors employed as part of our staff."

"Oh, right." she replied, a little ashamed of herself. How embarrassing.

"You will be arriving earlier than most of our staff and you may not see a guard at our guard shack. You will be arriving around security shift change. There will be a swipe card in your mailbox in the morning. You will use that to enter the parking lot. Just swipe it in front of the sensor located on the outside wall of the guard shack and park anywhere you like. Um... let's see... yes. That should be it, Alice."

"Alright. Thank you, Mr. Hill."

"You're very welcome, Alice. I look forward to meeting you."

_Ugh, _she thought._ I totally forgot about the physical._ As the large glass doors opened automatically in front of her, a rush of cool air blew across her shoulders. She stopped and looked around for a moment. Alice stared at the huge ring on the side of the building for a while, then her eyes came to rest upon the very same logo on the marble desk. She took a deep breath and began taking her first steps through the door, feeling much more self-conscious than she probably should.


	2. GLaDOS

Alice took the middle of three seats that were lined against the wall of the lobby. As she sat, waiting for who-knows-what, she began to root through the old magazines that were strewn about the surface of the small table before her. Science journals(_who would've guessed?_), two issues of "Space Exploration", an issue of "Nature", and a "Cosmopolitan". Alice reached for the Cosmo and looked over the cover. Standing before her, wearing a red dress, was Scarlett Johansson. To her left, a headline screamed "Ten Ways to Make Your Man Beg for More!".

_Ooh, _Alice thought as she began to flip the pages. _Ten different ways to cook a steak!_

Just as the smirk spread across her face, something just beyond the book caught her eye. On top of the black marble desk sat a white, plastic-looking box roughly the size of a loaf of bread. _I wonder what that does,_ she thought as she imagined walking up to it and lifting it, only to find a loaf of bread. She returned the girly magazine to it's rightful spot on the table and slowly stood up, her eyes never leaving the surface of that box. Why was she so obsessive about this? Did it really matter what it did? She would probably end up breaking it anyway, so her best bet was to stay far away from it, avoiding any unnecessary costs. But Alice couldn't stop herself. She briskly walked up to the desk and, after looking around for cameras and checking the walls for any more hidden doors, she reached for the box.

Before she could touch it, a sharp 'ding' came from it and the box lit up, bright white. Alice quickly looked around with a look of terror on her face. _Busted. _A robotic, almost female voice emitted from every surface of the room, filling it, causing scared little Alice Brenner to retreat to her safe middle seat.

"Good morning, and welcome to the Aperture Science Main Branch Science Facility. Today is Monday, June sixteenth. The time is nine a.m."

Alice was in shock.

"Welcome, prospective employee number... nine.. three.. four.. eight... your training will begin shortly. Please keep in mind that the taste of blood is a very common side-effect upon first entering the Science Facility, as not many carbon-based life forms are adapt to survival in such sterile quarters. Have a nice day and welcome the Aperture Science. In five... four... three... two... one..."

A panel on the wall slid open, revealing a long, bright white hallway.

"Please proceed through the doorway to your Aperture Science Pre-Employment Biological Seminar. And remember the Aperture Science motto: 'If at first you don't succeed, you fail.'"

Alice felt her jaw go slack and fall open. That hallway looked so clean, so sterile, she was afraid to set foot in there. She didn't want to scuff anything. But she was also afraid of what would be at the other end of that hallway. Should she really trust an emotionless, disembodied voice so easily?

"Are you still there..?" the voice rang out from every wall. "If you do not proceed through the doorway, your chances of receiving your Aperture Science Employee Discount dramatically fall. Also, you will not receive any delicious cake, which is to be served after the Aperture Science Pre-Employment Biological Seminar."

Alice placed a hand over her stomach.

_Damn. I should've eaten something this morning. Damn you, you strange, alienated voice. You win this round. _

She stepped into the hallway, and the panel on the wall quickly slid shut behind her with a whisper. Standing in the blinding white, listening to what she believed to be the first time she had ever actually heard complete silence, Alice noticed the hallway had two large windows running along each side. She removed her shoes and walked barefoot to the window on her right.

The hallway Alice was standing in was raised high above the actual floor of the room it existed in. As she looked out over the vast white expanse, Alice saw ten bio-hazard suits working away on some new breakthrough, she supposed. She also spied a few of those cylindrical white things with the red "eye." One of the bio-hazard men picked one up and began walking in Alice's direction, walking underneath her raised platform. Alice moved to the opposite side of the hallway and pressed her nose against the glass to see what was happening.

The man placed the thing on it's four legs on a raised white platform which rose to about his waist. He reached under the body of the thing, activating it. A laser sight shot out of the "eye" and swayed from side to side, as the body did the same. After a short while, both stopped moving and came to rest facing straight ahead, where there was a wall riddled with holes. The laser died and the man stepped away. A red light on the wall began to flash, and a panel opened up. Through the panel, a mannequin was rolled out on a conveyor belt sideways before the thing with the eye. The laser quickly jumped to life and came to rest on the mannequin.

Alice's eyes widened as she watched the small white thing split vertically and open up. Now it was a grey thing with a red eye, and the way the white shell split open and raised, it almost looked like it had wings. Suddenly, light shot out from the face of this thing at a very rapid pace, causing Alice to jump. The mannequin was practically cut in half with bullets and was returned to it's resting place. The red light on the wall flashed again, and the laser died as the thing stopped moving. _Turrets, _thought Alice. _Crazy awesome turrets. Good thing this is soundproof glass._

"If you would like to receive your cake, prospective employee number... nine... three... four... eight... I suggest you follow my instruction. The Aperture Science Pre-Employment Biological Seminar will begin shortly. Please take care to keep your hands– "

The voice cut off and was shortly followed by some electrical fizzles and pops. Alice covered her ears and cringed.

"– please step back. A portal will appear in... three... two... one..."

A hole ripped through the wall at the end of the white hallway, the rim of which was orange.

"Portal...?" Alice questioned aloud.

"That thing on the wall that just opened up in front of you? Portal." replied the electronic voice.

"No way. Is it... is it safe?"

"The Aperture Science Portal System has been tested and used for years. Please step through the portal, where you will arrive at the Aperture Science Pre-Employment– "

"Yeah, yeah," Alice said, not waiting for the voice to finish it's sentence. It droned out a few rules and facts about the portals, but Alice was not paying attention. She was fascinated by this marvelous hole gaping in the wall. Through it, she could see a small white chamber, surrounded by ten foot high windows. In the center of the chamber, there was a white bed. The bed was so white, in fact, it appeared to be glowing. Alice slowly stepped up to the rim of the portal and looked around. She could see more of the room now. There was a small table that resembled a night stand positioned near the bed. After taking a deep breath, Alice stuck her arm through the portal into the next room. Shock washed over her.

"Holy shit. This is for real...!"

She tossed her shoes through, and they landed on the bed with a soft thud. For the most part, it appeared safe. The electronic voice suddenly sparked to life, making Alice almost jump out of her skin.

"Yes. That thing is very interesting, isn't it? Doesn't that thing interest you? Now, please step through the portal."

_Well, it would be a cool way to die, _she thought. _Oh, you were shot? Yeah, I was torn apart while I was jumping through a teleportation portal. _Alice closed her eyes and held her breath as she leapt through a hole in a wall that hadn't existed just minutes before, half-expecting to hit the hard wall like the coyote and his painted tunnels in those cartoons she always saw.

However, her body hit something soft with a light thud. When she opened her eyes, she discovered she was laying next to her shoes on the white bed. Quickly, she turned back to look at the portal. Now, it was blue. How peculiar. With a _whoosh _it closed, and standing before Alice was her own reflection. Through the four glass walls, she could see the chamber was in an even larger chamber. But the larger chamber was more of a container for this smaller chamber. It was just a plain room, covered in white tiles from top to bottom, like every other room Alice had seen so far, save for the lobby.

"Welcome to the Relaxation Chamber, prospective employee number...nine... three... four... eight... Let's begin the Aperture Science Pre-Employment Biological Seminar. In three... two... one..."

"Wait! I'm supposed to be getting a physical exam from a woman named Gladys, not some computer!"

"I do not know what you are talking about, prospective employee number... nine... three... four... eight... I perform all of the examinations here at Aperture Science Main Branch Science Facility. I am the Generic Lifeform and Disk Operating System."

Outside the glass, a tile lit up and showed the letters as the voice said the words: G.L.aD.O.S.

_Oh. GLaDOS._

"So, you're Gladys, then..."

"I am commonly referred to as that, yes, prospective employee number... nine... three... four... eight. The Aperture Science Pre-Employment Biological Seminar will begin in three... two... one."

GLaDOS cut off for a brief period of time. There was a _ding!_, and she returned.

"Welcome to the Aperture Science Pre-Employment Biological Seminar. Here you will be tested to see if you can perform any and all tasks that are asked of you by your Aperture Science Employee Supervisor."

Alice rolled her eyes as she sighed. _It's going to be a long day, _she thought as she put her head in her hands, her elbows resting on her knees. _At least there's gonna be cake after this hell._


	3. PreEmployment Biological Seminar

Alice sat still on the bright white bed, cupping her head in her hands, her elbows resting on her knees as all around her GLaDOS clicked and whirred through the walls. Noticing her shoes still rested beside her, she scooped them up and dropped them to the floor at the base of the bed. That's when Alice noticed something: There were tally marks on the floor at the foot of the bed. Upon further inspection, she saw they counted up to twenty-four and then abruptly stopped. _Twenty-four?, _she thought. _What the hell happened– _

GLaDOS sparked to life. A tile in the floor opened up in the corner of the small chamber, and Alice quickly repositioned herself to look as if she had discovered nothing. A metallic arm, no wider than a baseball bat emerged from the pit and whirred as the top opened up in four directions and flattened out, revealing a red light.

_Another one of those 'eyes' I've been seeing?_

A tile in the opposite corner opened up and a metal arm carrying a flat, metal tray rose up out of the darkness. Alice checked what was on the tray, and she saw all manner of spotless metal tools. She had seen all of them before: knives, and scalpels, and hooks. They were all tools for a surgery.

Suddenly, something inside Alice jumped. Blood rushed into her face, making it uncomfortably warm very quickly.

"WAIT! What the hell is with all the tools, GLaDOS!? If you think you're going to be cutting me open today, you're very wrong! I hate to disappoint, but, honestly, there's nothing inside me that is any more interesting than what's on the outside! Really!"

"Perhaps you are correct... perhaps you are NOT."

GLaDOS' voice became noticeably lower during the second half of her response. Alice could feel her blood pressure rise. Her heart was loudly thumping in her ears, and she was developing a nasty case of tunnel-vision.

"Time to open up, Prospective Employee number... nine... three... four... eight."

Alice was breathing heavy as her eyes darted all around the chamber, desperately seeking an exit. Cold sweat began to run down her forehead as she heard another tile on the ceiling open up. A small metallic whir followed, and Alice knew there was another little metal arm protruding from the ceiling, looking over the tray, deciding which of the tools to use first. She had no time. She had... no chance.

Her head began to feel very light as her heart was now pounding in her ears. Her tongue was swelled to three times it's normal size. What did it matter? The only one who would hear her scream was that maniacal voice that came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. And who's to say it can even 'hear'? Her mind was racing all over the place.

_Was there something I forgot to do this morning? I brushed my teeth, right? I hope I didn't leave the fridge door open. The electric bill is bad enough already. What did I forget? There was something I forgot. I wish I could speak to my mom right now. I wish I could speak to ANYONE right now. There was something I was supposed to do. What was it?_

The red eye that emerged from the first pit moved closer to Alice, seemingly observing her. It moved out over the open floor and rose to meet her, hovering right before her face. Stiffly, it swayed back and forth, looking at her from all angles.

_I forgot to get milk. That's what it was. And carrots. _

Alice's mind was doing all it could to prevent her from focusing on what was happening all around her at the moment. The red eye was still dancing around her crazily, shining a red light on whatever it was focused on. The tiny metallic arm was inching closer, probably carrying one of the sharpest tools available on the tray. There was dead silence, apart from the mechanical whirring coming from both the arms that were making their way through the room.

"Directive: Open... Prospective Employee number nine... three..."

Alice didn't care to wait for the end of her ridiculous number. She was finding a way out, and she was finding it NOW.

She ran over to the window and began pounding on it with her fists, hoping that maybe, just maybe, someone would be walking through the larger chamber out there, not noticing all the madness going on in the smaller chamber. They would walk over and calmly, although very confused, open the door and allow Alice to escape.

As she continued hitting the glass, a white wall descended across the outside of it, covering it, making the whole chamber white. Alice panicked.

"Why do you act the way you act, Prospective Employee? Do you not like Aperture Science? Do you not like... I?"

Alice turned around and pressed her back against the newly-formed wall. The red eye jumped around her as light danced across her face, reflecting off the spotless metal tool being held by the other arm. She closed her eyes tightly and began to see spots on her eyelids when something cold and dull poked her lips.

"Open, Prospective Employee number nine... three... four... eight."

Slowly, Alice opened her eyes. The robotic arm was stretched out before her, holding a shiny metal tool that she quickly recognized, and soon she felt embarrassed about acting the way she had.

She opened her mouth as the red eye whirred and slid into place before her face. The other arm probed her mouth with the small rounded mirror.

"Very good, Prospective Employee number nine... three... four... eight. Normal."

The small robotic arm holding the mirror retreated back into the ceiling, the tile closing shut behind it. The small table with the shiny instruments also disappeared into the hole from whence it came.

Alice shuffled her feet insecurely. _Thank God noone was around to witness that, _she thought. As the warm red that was filling her face began to fade, she took a deep breath and sighed. Suddenly, without warning, the room filled with the laughter of a group of men. But this wasn't the same as when GLaDOS spoke. This noise actually had a point of origin. Alice looked around and noticed it was emanating from the night stand in the corner of the room. There was a clock radio sitting atop it that she had not noticed before.

As she moved closer, the laughter started to die a bit, then voices came out of the clock.

"Hey... hey! I think she notices."

"Relax, Phil. She doesn't know anything. Just chill out. When the exam begins, so does the show."

"But, no. Look on the monitor. She's looking right at the clock."

"So what? Maybe she's checking the time. But look at that behind! Man, it's, like, so perfect from this angle."

Alice quickly turned around and eyed up the ceiling. Sure enough, there was a tiny camera in the corner of the room. Gasps escaped from the speaker on the clock.

"Mark, you idiot! Your hand is on the P.A. button!"

There was some bickering, which soon cut out, and shortly afterward, the camera quickly retreated into the ceiling, and the table disappeared into the floor.

_Ugh... wonderful. More perverts._

There was another _ding!_, and Alice was surprised at how relieved she was to hear GLaDOS' voice.

"Do not worry. They have been reported and will face the consequences. The next part of the exam will require you to remove your clothing."

"All of it? After what just happened, you expect me to take off my clothes!?"

"Absolutely not, Prospective Employee number nine... three... four... eight."

"That's it? I just kinda have to?"

"My response was to the part where you said to me if I wanted you to remove all of your clothing from your body. My response was 'absolutely not'. I do not want to see that. Please just remove your outer clothing. Undergarments can remain."

"Oh. Okay..."

Alice removed her jacket and began opening the buttons of her blouse when she stopped, looked at the ceiling (thinking of no other possible spot to 'look' at GLaDOS), and apologized. There was no response to this, and Alice though it was just as well. She didn't know what she had apologized for to begin with.

When she was down to her underwear, GLaDOS told Alice to hold her arms out to her sides and stand very still. She did so, and the red eye whirred one full circle around her, then returned to the pit in the floor. One of the walls that lowered around the border of the room flickered and became covered in pictures.

X-rays, CAT scans, heat vision, pictures of her different organs, and more were littered all over the wall. Little blips appeared on every one of them very quickly. Some were expanded, some were done away with. GLaDOS spoke once again.

"All appears to be currently... normal. Thank you."

For some reason, this response excited Alice. In fact, she was ecstatic.

"You're wel–"

_Ding!_

"Welcome to the final section of the Aperture Science Pre-Employment Biological Seminar, Prospective Employee number nine... three... four... eight. Your clothing may be reapplied now."

Pause.

"The following section of the Aperture Science Pre-Employment Biological Seminar is a questionnaire. I will verbally ask you a question, and the responses will appear on this wall."

One of the walls lit up.

"You are required to state your response aloud. Easy enough, right?"

But before Alice could respond, GLaDOS quickly said "Good. Let's begin."

Half an hour later, Alice was struggling to keep her eyes open. Her jacket lay on the bed beside her, and her shoes still sat on the floor. She was once again holding her head up with her elbows resting on her knees. She was sick of GLaDOS' voice. This was getting ridiculous.

The questionnaire was made up of only ten questions, or so it seemed. These questions were asked repeatedly with different wording, or maybe different answers.

Alice recalled ten minutes into this section GLaDOS had asked:

"What is your favorite color?"

Alice looked up and down the wall, and when she had finally found it, she responded "Orange".

The very next question asked Alice to confirm her choice. She looked over the options and realized "orange" no longer existed. So she used a color that was the closest to orange, stating "burnt sienna".

"Was your last response a lie?" GLaDOS asked.

"Yes," Alice had responded. "But all the responses were changed! I couldn't pick the same answer!"

"Are you a liar?"

Alice stated "no" after looking at the options before her.

"Do you enjoy lying?"

"No!"

"Are you lying about being a liar and enjoying lying?"

"Wha–? No! GLaDOS– "

"If you WERE a liar, and I had asked the previous question about enjoying lying and being a liar, what would your response be?"

"Well, if I were a liar, my response would be 'yes'."

"So 'yes', you are a liar. Is this correct?"

"No!"

It had taken Alice ten minutes to get through that part of the questionnaire and convince GLaDOS that she wasn't a liar. Now, Alice was just waiting in the dead silence of the Relaxation Chamber, wondering what GLaDOS would say next. The last thing she had told Alice was that this section of the exam was complete. Did she pass? Did she fail? Were they going to keep her locked up in here like a caged rat? Or maybe turn her into some kind of experiment?

"Hello, Prospective Employee number nine... three... four... eight," GLaDOS began.

"Hello, GLaDOS."

"Good news. Your results were sent to the Aperture Science Pre-Employment Testing Result Decoding Department."

"Okay..."

GLaDOS' voice was noticeably lower in tone. It seemed menacing. Evil, even.

"You have been accepted to the Aperture Science Labor Drone Force. A portal will appear in three... two... one."

A wall ripped open with a _whoosh_, and again, the hole had an orange rim. Through the portal, Alice could see more drab, white tiles everywhere. On the far wall, she could read two signs. The one pointing to the right said "Enrichment Center". The one pointing to the left said "Manufacturing Dept.".

Alice stepped up to the brim once more, holding her shoes and jacket. She looked up to the ceiling.

"GLADOS?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you. It was nice meeting you."

"You are welcome. It was a pleasure meeting you, as well. Welcome to Aperture Science... Alice."

Her heart jumped at the sound of her name. She looked back through the portal and, smiling, took her first step into her place of employment.


	4. The Welcoming Committee

As Alice stepped through the portal into the next room(wherever it happened to be in this madhouse), it's blue-rimmed counterpart quickly closed on the wall behind her. She hadn't even noticed. This place was so fascinating, Alice seemed to drift off into her own little world of wonder and amazement. How long had technology been this far advanced? She had no idea humans were capable of such marvelous things.

Strolling through this dull white room, Alice looked from side to side, expecting to see something, but almost certain she would find nothing, which is exactly what she found. She came closer to the signs on the far end of the room. Each of them was made of some kind of plastic, and they were backlit. To the left, Manufacturing, to the right, Enrichment Center. Alice stared up at the signs, confused, expecting some kind of directive. However, she received none.

"GLaDOS...?," she stated aloud. "... Are you there?"

However, there was no response. The only sound she could hear was the buzzing of the bright white lights illuminating this room. Alice began to wonder what kind of place would do this to a new employee when, suddenly, GLaDOS' voice came from... well, wherever it comes from.

"Hello."

A wave of relief washed over Alice.

"Hi, GLaDOS. So, uh... which way do I go?"

"Processing..."

Alice waited patiently for three minutes before GLaDOS returned with an answer:

"You are to place yourself within the Manufacturing Department of the Aperture Science Main Branch Science Facility, where the Aperture Science Guided Tour to Enlightenment will begin, ending in the heart of the Enrichment Center. Please enter the door to your left and await further instructions. And remember, here at Aperture Sciences, the only way to achieve is to follow orders without question. Have a nice day."

Two panels on the wall to the left of Alice slid away, revealing a glass door that opened with a _whoosh _automatically when she drew near. The air in the next room was noticeably cooler, forcing Alice put her jacket back on. This room was very small, about the size of a normal walk-in closet, and it was gray from floor to ceiling. There were four windows, one on each side wall, and two on the wall before Alice. In between the two windows ahead of her, there was another automatic door. As she approached it, she stopped to peer out a window so she knew what to expect.

Outside of the room Alice now resided, lay another room like all the rest. Bright white tiles from top to bottom. Absolutely spotless. The room was huge. Alice estimated it to be about seven football fields long. She also noticed she was elevated again. She was near the ceiling in this room, which was roughly forty feet high. It was more of a glorified hallway than a room, with the other two walls about one hundred and fifty feet apart. The floor was parted in the middle by another wall, about fifty feet wide. Alice supposed there was another chamber inside there. Along this inner wall, were white tables, the tops of which were covered by crazy mechanisms and creations. Looking at the menagerie on the tables, Alice noticed something she was surprised she hadn't already noticed: there were people in this room. Her heart jumped into her throat and she quickly jaunted out the door, which opened with a near silent _whoosh_.

She stepped out onto a stairway, which also happened to be spotless white tile. Looking out over all the white bio-hazard suits, Alice was careful to take the steps one at a time. As she approached the ground floor, the suits at the table nearest to her right took notice. The three of them walked over, surrounding her at the foot of the stairs. They just stood there, silently staring at Alice. After a while, she began to wonder if there were really even humans in these suits. They all looked at each other, almost confused, waving their arms and shrugging their shoulders. Finally, one of them held up their hand, signaling the others to wait.

The arms of the suit reached up to the side of the helmet and the hands began working on prying it off. There was a sound that reminded Alice of the air brakes on a big-rig, and then the helmet was lifted, revealing the head of a man(a fairly attractive man, at that). He ran a white-gloved hand through his dark hair and his brown eyes met the blue of hers. Alice estimated his age at just a few years ahead of her.

"Sorry about that. These suits have headsets that let us communicate with each other. I forgot that people on the outside can't hear you. You must be Alice," the man said, putting out his hand. "Nice to meet you."

"That's me... How did you know...?"

"GLaDOS. She had the decency to warn us this time. I'm Marco."

Alice took his outstretched hand and shook. He chuckled as the other two suits began to work on their helmets.

"I don't understand," Alice said. "What do you mean 'warn you'?"

"Well, every new employee gets 'the tour'. It's just that usually people wander in here without us knowing. Let me introduce you to the rest of the welcoming committee."

The suit to Marco's right was first, revealing themself to be a woman who, just like Marco before her, happened to be very pretty. Her chestnut hair accented her tan skin perfectly.

"This is Fiona," Marc stated while wrapping an arm around the woman's back. "She's our local worry-wort here at– "

"It's not worrying as much as being attentive and cautious, buddy," Fiona interjected playfully. "Besides, there's nothing wrong with being too careful. No wonder they say women are smarter than men," she turned to Alice. "Don't you agree, Alice?"

Alice made an amused noise and shook Fiona's hand when she offered it. Marco began speaking again, and Alice payed very close attention.

"This charming fellow to my left..." he said as he put his arm across the shoulder of the black man holding his helmet under his arm. "... is George. I call him 'Handsome Jorge'."

Alice snickered as she shook George's hand, watching him roll his eyes at Marco's comment.

"Nice to meet you," she said.

"That's the welcoming party. Now... let's start the tour, shall we?"

Marco clapped his hands once, and spun on his heel. As he walked away, Fiona and George looked to each other and shook their heads. Fiona gestured for Alice to come along.

"He's not always like this," she said quietly.

Alice just nodded and quietly strolled along with the three of them, Marco leading the group through a door to the enclosed room in the center of this chamber, just as Alice predicted. When they were all inside, George closed the door behind them and they stood in silent darkness for five seconds. Alice panicked.

"Lights?" Fiona asked.

"Oh, right," George sputtered.

There was a rustling noise and then bright light flooded the chamber. Alice could see nothing but rows of shelving that stretched on for an eternity. The shelves were filled with countless inventions, creations, gizmos, do-hickeys, and whatchamacallits. Marco took a deep breath and turned around.

"Cozy, isn't it?" he smiled. "Come on."

He led them through the labyrinth of endless metallic shelving until they came to an opening. Standing at the center of the opening, surrounded by shelves stocked with what looked to be giant eyeballs, Alice felt very paranoid. She thought maybe they _were_ all eyes and maybe, just maybe, they _were _all watching her.

"What are these things?" Alice asked cautiously.

"GLaDOS," replied Fiona. "Parts of her, anyway."

"_IT_," George snapped. "Parts of _IT_."

"Anyway," Fiona quickly regained control of the conversation as she lifted one of the eye-things from its perch. "We don't really know what they do or what they're even for. They've been here– untouched– since this place was built."

"Probably not important, anyway," George said as he grabbed another one.

Quickly, sounding like a frightened little child, GLaDOS spoke up.

"DON'T TOUCH THAT!"

"Why not?" George provoked, lifting it above his head.

"PUT IT DOWN! PUT IT DOWN RIGHT NOW!"

"Do you even know what this is for, GLaDOS? Huh? Do you?"

"George! Put it back!" Fiona spat.

He did so, and then looked to the ceiling, muttering "probably not."

"I. Know. Everything," GLaDOS answered slowly.

Her response sent a chill through every one of them, as they all looked at one another uneasily.

"So, anyway," Marco started. "How 'bout that tour, yeah?"

The four of them meandered their way through the shelves, stopping every so often for explanation. Among the thingamajigs strewn throughout this room were some amazing things.

"We call these KatFeet," George explained, holding two metallic stilts. "They wrap around your calves. If you take a spill from any height, these stilts extend under your feet and absorb the shock of the fall. It's like landing on a giant marshmallow. If you land on your feet, that is..."

A few minutes later, they were standing around a giant cylindrical tube. At the base of it, there were two small metal steps leading into a doorway of sorts. All around the base of the tube was a metal support, which housed some sort of contraption, visible through the grated floor inside. Another of these also existed at the top of the tube.

"This," Marco began, resting his right hand on the tube. "This is the birth of the Aperture Portal System. This prototype was constructed ten years ago, by scientists much better than any of us."

Alice made her way around the cylinder, staring into the gizmos at the top and bottom, then finally noticing her reflection, which informed her of her open mouth. She abruptly shut it and turned around.

"Does it still work?" Alice questioned.

"Does it?" Marco responded. "Does it? Absolutely. In fact we'll be using it today."

"Oh, no," Fiona chimed in. "No, we won't. There's only room for two people in that thing. We're four. Do the math. That means 'not enough room'. Especially with George. No offense."

"None taken," George smiled.

"Nonsense, Fiona," Marco stated with an undertone of what Alice assumed was sarcasm. "There's plenty of room for all of us. Even George."

It was true. George was a large man. He wasn't fat, but he was burly. He was the biggest man Alice had ever seen in person, anyway. She was wondering how exactly he was going to fit in with all of them. He would definitely have to crane his neck just to fit.

"I've been in one before, people. You've seen it," George said. "Besides, it's really not that small once you're in it."

"Exactly," Marco said. "Case closed."

Fiona sighed in exasperation as she rolled her eyes. Alice looked to Marco, who was staring at Fiona with those dreamy brown eyes. She wished he would look at her that way. Why is she always the girl that noone notices? Sure, Fiona was pretty, but she lacked in the personality department, which is where Alice could absolutely overshadow her. So why was Marco so hung up on this Fiona?

Alice looked at her. She was staring back at Marco with a playful half-smirk. The kind of smile that drives men nuts. This girl knew what she was doing. Alice quietly scoffed and turned back to the others, only to find Marco's dark brown eyes locked on hers. In an instant, she saw everything they could have, everything they could be. However, she knew it was everything that could not, and most likely, would not.

"Are we all ready?" Marco asked as he clapped his hands once. "All aboard the Aperture Express! Do the honors, Georgie."

The large black man walked over to the tube, examined it for awhile, then poked at it with one finger. A door opened at the top of the small metal stairs with a hiss, and yellow, transparent buttons appeared near the inside of the door, as if they were just a hologram projected onto the glass. The gizmos at the top and bottom sparked to life beyond the grating, revealing green and purple lights. They slowly and silently whirred.

"Ladies first," said George, holding out his left hand.

Fiona stepped up the stairs, onto the grating, and made her way to the opposite end of the tube, pressing herself up against the glass. Alice followed, but she wasn't happy that she had to stand next to HER.

George was next. He ducked in through the door, one hand on the top of the frame, with ease. Alice expected much more struggle than that. George took his place on the opposite side of Fiona, grunting as he stood with his neck bent down. Alice saw there was still some room, but only for maybe half a person. She looked to Marco, who made a gesture with his hands, telling them to squeeze together. They did, and Alice felt a twinge of anger rush through her as her shoulder touched Fiona's.

Marco squeezed into the open spot with a "pardon me, 'scuse me." The door hissed shut and everyone tried to adjust to their new surroundings.

"Yeah, not so bad," Fiona grunted. "As long as you don't– unh!– breathe."

"Whud er ya cumblannig abud?" came Alice's muffled voice. She was pressed between Marco's back and the glass of the tube with her hands near her shoulders. Her face was contorted against Marco's left shoulder, annoyance in her eyes.

"Hngh! ...yeah," George added, matter-of-factly.

"Alright, alright people," Marco said, trying to calm the other inhabitants of this small isolated chamber.

"No! It's not alright. I said this would happen, but NOOO, let's not listen to Fiona! After all, she's just a girl!"

"Okay, I don't see what you're trying–"

"Would you just hit the buttons, man?" George strained.

"If you can move around enough to reach the buttons," Fiona snapped angrily.

"Look. I don't know what your problem is–"

"My problem!? You wanna know what my problem is!?"

Alice sat in silent disgust as everyone around her bickered and argued, struggling to breathe, her face slowly getting more and more twisted with every move from Marco. After a while, she decided it was too much for her to take.

"ENOUGH!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. She yelled so loud, it even caused her own ears to ring. Everyone shut up instantly, almost in shock of what had just happened.

"Just hit a god-damned button and get us the hell out of here, already!"

They all stood there in silence for a little while, reflecting on what they had just done. Slowly, trying not to move too much, Marco pressed a series of the numbered holographic buttons.

The gizmos at the top and bottom of the tube began to whir a little louder now. Alice looked up and saw the gizmo spinning like a top, the sound of wind rushing past her. The glow of the green and purple lights began to brighten, and the glass around them began to shine. Outside the glass, everything was turning dark, as if someone was hitting a dimmer on the lights. The glass of the tube was glowing bright green now, and the noise was driving Alice mad. The gizmo above them in the ceiling quickly grinded to a halt, sounding like it had died. The rushing wind sound still filled the tube, and the gizmo under the grating of the floor was casting a green light on them from below.

Suddenly, everything stopped. Completely. The noise, the light on the glass, everything except the green under-glow. There was a mechanical clang, then a _whoosh _as the floor beneath them gave way, sending them down as the room outside the glass quickly rose up and over their heads.

And with that, they were gone.


	5. Waiting

Darkness has a funny way of helping to put things in perspective. Surrounded by the vacuum of infinite blackness, there's time to clear your head, gather yourself, reflect, and think. There are no visual distractions to disturb your train of thought, and everything is right, just as it should be. Perfection in mute with blinders.

So much emptiness and nothingness can also make you realize how truly small you really are. There's no way of knowing how far this void stretches, where it ends. So, you sit back and accept your worthless little existence in the universe. And right now, Alice Brenner truly understands that.

As she dropped through the floor, she felt it wash over her, as if she were diving into a pool of wisdom. Nanoseconds later, she felt absolutely nothing. She was no longer herself, but she knew full well who she was, and she could no longer express, but she could experience emotion. And whatever she had become had never been happier.

At his point in time, Alice Brenner no longer existed. She was gone. Poof! Wiped away, just like that. And she had never been more at peace. That's what she felt as the consciousness that was once Alice floated through this infinite void: peace.

No worries, no responsibilities, no stress, no rent, no weight-watching, no makeup, no name brands, no currency, no boy troubles, no jealousy, no gossip, nothing. Emptiness. And that emptiness was the best part of the whole split-second that Alice spent as a consciousness. It was time to become human once again.

She felt a force tug her down(in the direction of her feet, anyway. There was no direction here). As it pulled her, she could feel all the hassles she experienced in this world gather together and take a seat on her shoulders.

As Alice opened her eyes, she saw the floor come up to meet her feet, surrounded with bright purple light and a terrible whirring noise. The gizmo in the ceiling was spinning remarkably fast, compared to the one in the floor, which wasn't moving at all. There were a few metallic clanks and clicks from the gizmo above, and then, just like earlier, it just stopped. The purple glow faded from the glass, and Alice could see that she stood in another tube in a completely different room, joined by Marco, Fiona, and George.

Through the glass, Alice saw something she hadn't since she had been here: color. They were standing at the end of a hallway, the floor of which was the same black marble she had seen on the front desk. On the far wall, the company logo shone bright white against the light grey of the walls. There were also a few potted plants lining the walls. The entire wall to their right was glass, and through it, Alice could see the parking lot. By her judgement, they were at least twenty stories up.

The door of the tube opened with a quick hiss, and Marco quickly stepped out. George was next, crouching and grunting along the way. Then Fiona and Alice followed. Marco gestured for them to follow him, and began walking towards the logo.

At the halfway point, he stopped and turned around.

"Are you ready to meet your new employer, Alice?"

"Erm– yeah, I suppose. I mean, I'm not prepared or anything–"

Marco held his hand out in the direction of the wall, where a painted portrait hung. The plaque underneath it read 'Gregory Hall.' Inside the frame, there was a picture that Alice had expected to see: an old man in a business suit. But, she noted, he didn't look like an average old man. He had a full head of hair, all of which was shocked white. He had piercing blue-green eyes and a white beard along the lower portion of his jaw. Some kind of hipster, Alice supposed. He had a furrowed brow, but, other than that, there were nearly no wrinkles. He looked good for his age.

"So is he the one who invented GLaDOS?" Alice asked.

"Not sure," George replied. "No one really knows. None of us, anyway. If there was someone who knew, this guy would be the one."

"But, in my opinion, I don't think it was him," Marco added. "He's all business. There's no science in him at all. Just because he runs the company, doesn't mean he had to invent it's greatest creation. You've seen all the drones down there, ourselves included. No, he's not the guy responsible..."

"Well, maybe I'll ask him who is when I talk to him. If I remember," said Alice.

"Maybe you will," Marco stated with a brilliant smile.

"Well!" Fiona abruptly said with a clap of her hands and a smile. "Are we gonna just stand out here in the hall all day, or are we gonna go see Old Man Hall?"

Alice could sense the tone of false enthusiasm in Fiona's voice, and she didn't like it. Was she just making fun of Marco, or was she trying to steal the attention again?

"Yeah, let's go." Alice simply suggested, tugging at Marco's left sleeve.

"Alright, yeah," Marco said. "His office is right at the end of the hall up here."

He took the lead once again, then George followed, and finally Fiona turned after a pause. When Alice caught up to them, Marco was fiddling with the door at the end of the hallway.

"Won't open?" George asked.

"Nope," Marco answered. "Won't budge."

"Here, let me try," George said as he stepped in front of Marco.

The next moment, there was a low, electric hum, almost silent to human ears, coming from the walls.

"Mister Hall is in a meeting with some clients right now," GLaDOS stated. "Please have a seat in the waiting area. Thank you."

"Well," Marco threw his hands up. "That's that. We can't wait here all day."

"It will just be a few short minutes," GLaDOS responded.

"How long?" George spat.

"Five minutes and twenty-nine seconds,"she said coldly.

"That gives us just enough time to get the next part of the tour ready," Marco said with a smile.

"Really?" Alice asked. "What's the next part of the tour?"

"The Enlightenment Center," George answered.

Alice gave him a puzzled look. She looked to Marco, but he had his eyes closed as he rubbed his neck with a smirk on his face. Fiona exhaled loudly.

"What's the Enlightenment Center?" Alice asked with the voice of a scared five-year-old.

"It's where all of our experiments are done. We shed light on our questions, and receive answers," replied Fiona. "Or, we're... 'enlightened', if you will."

"Oh," Alice said.

Marco snickered, and Fiona shot him a look that could drop a rhinoceros from fifty feet away. Once again, Alice was confused. Marco covered his eyes with one hand.

"Don't look in her eyes, she'll turn you to stone," he said, in obvious reference to Fiona. "I'm sorry. No matter how many times I hear it, I still find it ridiculous."

"The girl was asking a question, and I was breaking it down into simpler terms!"

"But there's a catch, Alice," George interrupted. "We were all going to do some work. Yourself included."

"I was gonna work on an experiment?" Alice asked as her eyes lit up with images of herself dressed in a lab coat and glasses. Were they going to work on a new kind of teleporter? Or would they work on a vaccine for some horrible virus? Would they be curing cancer? Or AIDS? Maybe old age! Or–

"Hell, no," Marco's voice cut through her fantasies. "We were going to set up an experiment by placing obstacles in a room."

Alice's face fell flat as she gave a short, simple "oh".

"Just slow down, take one step at a time," George consoled her. "You'll get to that point eventually, just not today, alright?"

Alice, like a stubborn little girl, slowly nodded with a mixture of anger and sadness in her eyes, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Way to break the girl, Mister Sensitive," Fiona said to Marco as she wrapped her arms around Alice's shoulders. Alice could smell the plastic of her white suit. It smelled clean as she closed her eyes, inhaled, and accepted Fiona's embrace, her forehead falling into Fiona's chest.

"Take it easy, girl," Fiona said softly, turning to Marco. "I'll wait here with the girl. You go get it ready."

Alice opened her eyes and, looking past Fiona's arm, watched as Marco struggled for words. He opened his mouth, then closed it, adjusted his footing, and opened his mouth again. George wrapped an arm over his chest and pulled him back to the teleporter, shaking his head as they went.

"Have a seat," Fiona said, as they turned toward the waiting area. Alice sat in one of the seats and looked at Fiona, who was backlit with the green light from the humming tube across the room behind her. As the noise and light faded from the room, Fiona took a seat next to Alice.

"Roughly three minutes remaining," GLaDOS sang out.

"Thank you, GLaDOS," replied Fiona, looking at the ceiling.

"Yes."

Alice watched as Fiona turned back to her and stretched out a hand.

"I feel like we got off on the wrong foot. You don't hate me, do you?"

Alice's heart jumped into her throat, and her face grew warm.

"No. Of course not," Alice fibbed as she took Fiona's hand in hers. "Why would I do such a thing? I don't even know you."

"Yeah," Fiona chuckled. "I was just afraid you thought I'm some huge bitch because of all the stuff I've said and done during the tour so far."

"I'll be honest with you, Fiona: I did think you were a huge bitch."

Fiona's eyes grew wide and her mouth was gaping.

"But," Alice said quickly, before Fiona could curse her out. "I don't anymore. I've changed my opinion. You're okay."

"I'm so sorry," was all she said.

"Nah, think nothing of it," Alice replied. Fiona laughed. But it wasn't the cocky laugh that Alice had come to know. It was a weak laugh. The laugh of a nervous, insecure little girl.

"God, look at me," Fiona chuckled, tears welling up in her eyes. "Stressing how some girl I've just met feels about me. I mean..." she trailed off, fighting back the tears.

"No, no, stop that," Alice consoled her. "We all do. Relax, you've got nothing to worry about."

"I just put on my armor when people are around, and with Marco... it just... it just gets even harder," she pushed her hair back. "I don't act like myself. I don't know why."

_She's in love_, Alice thought. Being nineteen, she knew nothing of the experience. Sure, she'd had her fair share of crushes in the past, but Alice had never been in love. But, right now, she could sure as hell see it. She took Fiona's hand in both of hers and held them up to her own left cheek.

"Hey, listen. What are you doing after work today?"

"Nothing."

"I would like to cordially invite you to come out to dinner with me. In celebration of our newfound friendship," Alice smiled.

"Really?"

"Absolutely."

"That would be great, yeah. Come here," Fiona said, rising from her seat. She embraced Alice, thanking her.

"Forty seconds," GLaDOS chimed.

"Get yourself ready, Alice. Best not to keep him waiting. I'm gonna run ahead and help _those two_," Fiona said, with great exaggeration. "I'll see you when you get finished. Here, this is where we'll be."

Fiona pulled out a marker, seemingly from thin air. She took Alice's left hand and, turning her palm up, scribbled on it. Alice could see she was writing a sequence of numbers on her hand: 7-3-4-5.

"That doesn't really tell me anything, though, Fiona."

"It doesn't have to. You just step into that machine back there and punch in those numbers. Trust me, we'll be there."

GLaDOS came back.

"Doors will open in three... two... one."

When the countdown had ceased, the double doors before them opened outward, leaving a gaping hole in the wall. Alice turned back to Fiona, who was giving her a thumbs-up.

"Knock 'em dead, tiger."

Alice stepped through the doors, which automatically closed behind her. Once again, everything was different. The floors were a super-polished beige marble, and the walls were painted a darker shade of that. The wooden furniture was another shade darker, and the globe that sat on the desk between the two windows was even a tan color. Past the desk, on the wall directly behind it, was another painted portrait. This one was of a man who looked like Ronald Reagan.

Across the room directly before her, there was a large wooden table, which Alice estimated to be about twenty feet long, with roughly fifteen men in suits gathered around it. At the opposite end of the table, the man Alice had come to know as Gregory Hall stood with his hands crossed behind his back.

"I believe I speak for the whole corporation when I say that this may be Aperture Science's biggest and best contribution to humanity as we know it. It will change the way we perceive the world around us. And, with that, I will leave you to think on it, and I will be in contact tomorrow morning. Thank you for your time," he said as he bobbed around his end of the table, with an abnormal amount of spring in his step for a man his age. All the suits gathered around the long table stood up one by one, each of them disappearing as they made their way past their respective seat. Alice felt her eyes widen and the color rush from her face.

Mr. Hall was making his way past the end of the table, muttering to himself, when he noticed her standing there.

"Oh! Well, hello there. I didn't see you standing there. I'm Mr. Gregory Hall. How may I help you, dear?"

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Hall. My name is Alice–"

"Alice Brenner. Prospective employee. Due for a meeting in precisely twenty seconds," said GLaDOS, stealing the words from the tip of Alice's tongue.

"Ah, yes. Ms. Brenner–"

"Um...A-Alice, please... uh, sir."

"Okay then. Alice. We spoke on the telephone yesterday, correct?"

"Um, yes, sir, we did– "

"Please, call me Greg."

"Alright. Can I just ask one thing? Were those really all holograms back there?" she asked without waiting for a response to the first question.

"Yes. Yes, they were. They were all real people, if that's what you mean. From around the world. Don't think I'm a kooky old man here, running a science corporation, having meetings with my own creations," he laughed. Alice nervously chuckled with him. He held out a hand, directing her to the desk with the globe on it.

"Please, Alice. Have a seat and let's begin, shall we?" Greg asked, a broad smile on his young-ish old face. Alice nodded and took a seat at the desk, inspecting the painting on the wall in glances, trying not to be obvious.


	6. Mr Hall

Alice was inspecting the painting centered on the wall just past Mr. Hall's bright white hair as she sat, waiting for the interview to begin. A man with dark hair, a slow smile, and a bright red nose stared back. This couldn't be a portrait of Hall, even a portrait of a young Greg Hall. She couldn't find any resemblances whatsoever between the man standing before her and the acrylic copy of whoever it was smiling back at her. Noticing her gaze, Greg took a swift step aside, and admired the painting himself.

"Handsome fellow, isn't he?" he asked her.

"Who is he?" Alice replied, answering Hall's question with one of her own.

"That man's name is... _was_ Cave Johnson," he answered, the tone of his voice reminded Alice of the way an adult explains something to a fascinated child. "He was the man that started it all. Well, Aperture Science, I mean. Poor man didn't know a lick of science, but understood he had a duty to serve his country. And so, Aperture started as a government-funded project to create shower curtains for the military."

"That's it?" Alice questioned, amazement and wonder in her voice.

"Yep. That's it. Well, not the whole military. Everyone but the Navy. You see, Cave was more of an 'idea man' rather than a 'science man'. He had an idea for bullet-proof shower curtains, but needed engineers to perfect it, which, eventually, they did. But I guess the fact that the Navy didn't want it really peeved him. Did himself in, he did," Hall finished, rubbing his chin, looking into the painted face before him. "Poor man."

"He killed himself?"

She didn't ask this as much as she had just repeated it for herself, letting it sink in. If this man could see what his dinky little shower curtains have become...

"Not on purpose," chuckled Hall. "Purely accidental. Involuntary suicide. Cave, as I said, was not a man of science. In his spare time, he worked on a new shower curtain, one he was sure the Navy wouldn't be able to resist. After he perfected the design, he made seven of these 'new and improved' curtains, or would have, if the sly son-of-a-bitch knew enough to avoid playing with mercury."

"Mercury? He didn't know it was poisonous? Doesn't, like, everyone know that?" Alice questioned, her eyes moving back to the portrait.

"Oh, he knew full well of mercury's lethal properties. As I said, he was making seven curtains, one for each of the Navy's highest officers. Poor Cave harbored a mean grudge. If only he'd known how to handle the materials, he wouldn't have given himself mercury poisoning."

"So what happened? I'm sure the military wanted nothing to do with him after that."

"You're partially correct. They gave him a chance to redeem himself, prove himself once again. On his deathbed. Could you imagine?"

"Well, he obviously succeeded," Alice stated, looking around. "Maybe a little bit more, even. What did he do?"

"He came up with a triple-tiered plan to renew Aperture's image in the public eye. It's a pity he couldn't do the same thing for himself. After his death, the government regulated Aperture and everything connected with it. They hand picked their 'go-betweens' at the company, and that's where I come into the picture. At the ripe old age of twenty-four, sitting at the head of an applied sciences corporation, guarding that government paycheck. Twenty-four. Can you imagine? That was fifty years ago!"

Alice did some quick math, and was shocked to discover Hall's actual age. He didn't act seventy-four. He didn't even _look_ seventy-four.

As she searched for lint on her skirt, she imagined there was a room somewhere in this very building where she would find a big white room with nothing but a tiny pool in the center of it, clearly labeled "Aperture Fountain of Youth (property of Aperture Science)". She smiled to herself as she watched imaginary people submerge their bodies into the pool in her mind's eye, with the instruction of GLaDOS, of course. ("Be sure to submerge your entire frame into the Aperture Fountain of Youth, Employee number two-three-five. If you fail to meet this requirement, an armed Aperture Science Assistance Officer will be called upon to help you. Remember, science is life!")

She slid a hand across her lap, wiping little fuzzies onto the floor, and looked back at Hall, who was looking at the portrait again.

"So what was his obviously successful plan?" Alice inquired to the back of Mr. Hall's head.

"The triple-tiered plan. Three tiers, three ideas. Almost perfect ones, at that. Two very successful ones, and the other...well. An embarrassment, to be honest. Have you ever heard of the Make-A-Wish Foundation?"

Alice nodded.

"This idea was a precursor to that... in a way. It was bad. It was very bad.

"You see, Cave was born during the Great Depression. Born into nothing. No money, barely any food or shelter, no medicine. Horrible. One year before the end of the Depression, his father took ill and, subsequently, passed on. From that day forward, Cave was the man of the house. He had to provide for the rest of the family.

"When the Depression had become nothing but a sad, sad memory, employment skyrocketed. His family members took up jobs of their own, each respecting the value of a dollar once again, storing them up in case the market ever crashed again. Cave's memory of his hard-working father drove him to be the best man he could.

"He worked hard for himself, climbing ladders and jumping ranks until he finally made it: he had become the most successful businessman in America. He was born with nothing, and now, if he wanted to, he could flush a thousand-dollar bill down the toilet every time he went to the bathroom. On his deathbed, reflecting on his life, he came up with the idea of the _Take_-A-Wish Foundation, which would take the dreams of sick, impoverished children, and make them come true for wealthy adults."

Alice reacted with her gut, spitting "What a monster!" with anger flooding her eyes.

"Now, now," said Hall, waving a hand in her direction(which, at the time, had infuriated her). "I told you it was an embarrassment, didn't I?

"The other two ideas, or 'tiers', if you will, were openly accepted by the United States Government. The first of these was the 'Counter-Heimlich Maneuver', an obvious counter-technique used to continue the target's choking and ensure they can't be assisted any further."

"What the hell would you use that for?" Alice questioned him, anger seething in every word, her hatred for the man in the painting very outspoken.

"Well, you don't teach it to everybody, Alice. Then it could be abused. The government only teaches it to about twenty percent if their most loyal, brightest field agents. It's actually been used to take down leaders of many dangerous regimes."

"How? How do you just get away with something like that?"

"Well, my dear, that is the beauty of it. American spies are positioned all around the globe, each with a very specific operation, involving an asset or a target. These spies infiltrate the groups of their target, work their way to the top, and, when the signal is given, they strike. Of course, if the target happens to choke on something before the signal, no signal is required. They dash over, perform the Counter-Heimlich, and, TA-DA! No more target."

"Okay, hold on. I still don't understand this. How can spies get away with preventing someone from being saved, and still get out of there alive without falling under suspicion?" asked Alice, trying to wrap her head around the fact that an abomination that sprung from the mind of the man she just recently began to hate was being largely celebrated.

"Very simply, actually, Alice. It looks as if you're performing the Heimlich Maneuver. Obviously, after a few tries without success, someone else will step into to try to save the target as well. However, the Counter-Heimlich prevents any further assistance, so, no matter how many people try, that piece of... whatever... is never coming out."

Alice adjusted herself to a more comfortable position in her chair. She looked at the back of Hall's head. He was still looking at the painting adoringly. After a few moments of waiting for him to continue, she simply stated "Okay."

Hall turned to her, his hands on the desk, and leaned across the desk with a huge smile on his face, positioning it just inches away from hers.

"You wanna know what the last tier was? It was the greatest invention of Aperture yet! It's crowning achievement!" he said, throwing himself back to an upright position once again. "As Cave put it: 'Something that tears a hole in space and time. Something to help with the shower curtains.'"

At this, Hall laughed, almost crazily. His face turned bright red, causing his hair to appear an even brighter white. He doubled over, tears streaming from his eyes, still laughing.

Across the desk, Alice stared with a concerned look at the older man laughing like a crazy person. If this truly were a joke, she sure as hell didn't get it.

Mr. Hall stood upright again, his face still red, wiping tears from the corners of his eyes, breathing heavily. A few final chuckles escaped him, as they always do after a good laugh. He took a seat in his big comfy chair across from Alice, and spun around in it so they were facing each other.

"Something to help with the shower curtains," he said quietly to himself. "That particular kind of science could be used for so much more. Shower curtains. Oh, dear Cave wasn't the brightest bulb of the bunch."

As Hall's words trailed off to the point where he was just mumbling to himself, a realization struck Alice. She suddenly understood what they were talking about. _Tearing a hole in space and time? Teleportation!_

"Mr. Hall, er, Greg," she quietly interjected. He looked up at her, snapping out of his madman impression.

"Would you mean the tube that brought me here? The, er, (for lack of a better word) teleporter?"

"Tube...?" Hall questioned with a distant, empty look in his eyes. Alice could swear she heard gears grinding and clicking behind those eyes, followed by a tiny _ding! _when he finally returned. "You must mean the ATLiS, the Aperture Teleportation Linking System. Well, you're very close. The ATLiS is a very important piece of Aperture's history, but it's far from a crowning achievement. The ATLiS is the prototype."

Alice's heart jumped as she clenched the armrests on her chair. Her skin grew warm and cold at the same time, and she could feel the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. Her excitement was so great, it was like electricity buzzing through every inch of the room, almost palpable. Her mouth was dry, and she only noticed it when she opened her mouth for her reply.

"You mean there's a _better_ version of the teleporter? Somewhere in this building, you have a better version of that thing in the hallway?" she asked in obvious disbelief.

"As a matter of fact, Alice," he said with a grin. "We have things that most people never even _dream_ of. And, to answer your question, yes. Yes, we do have an improved version of the ATLiS. You see, we simply took the design and–"

GLaDOS hummed to life from the ceiling, the floor, the walls, and every other corner of the universe.

"Aperture Lockdown Code Blue-Alpha C-five-one-one-three-seven in effect. All Aperture personnel report to emergency stations. ATLiS communications will be ceased in one hundred-twenty seconds. All Aperture personnel report to emergency stations. Aperture Emergency Tactical Officers report to Sector Victor-Victor-Indigo. Experiment number two-two-six-three-zero has escaped. Repeat: all Aperture Emergency Tactical Officers report to Sector Victor-Victor-Indigo. Experiment number two-two-six-three-zero has escaped. ATLiS communications will be ceased in one hundred seconds."

"Well," Hall said rather casually. "It appears you'll be getting more than just a tour and interview today. You'll also be able to see what an Aperture Science Panic Room looks like when it's crammed full of employees. Lucky you." He grinned.

"Yeah," Alice replied, trying her hardest not to roll her eyes. "Lucky me."

"Get to the ATLiS as quickly as possible and type in four ones. That will take you to the nearest panic room."

"What about you? The head of the company doesn't get to protect himself!?"

"Oh, I assure you, Alice, I am very well-protected. I have my own duties for this situation. You know how it is. The captain must go down with the ship."

As much as Alice didn't like the current tone of the conversation, she nodded her head in agreement. She was given her code, and she would be safe with the other employees–

_The other employees! Fiona!_ she thought. _If I have to go somewhere new, I'd like to go there with someone I recognize._

Hall placed a hand on her shoulder and began directing her toward the double doors. As they walked, he pressed a button on the wall and they swung open again.

"ATLiS communications will cease in sixty seconds." cried the all-seeing, all-knowing voice from nowhere.

"Now you must be quick about this, my dear. It takes a few seconds to transport by way of ATLiS. Go on, go on."

Alice began to jog down the long marble hallway toward the big tube at the opposite end when she heard Hall shout a final reminder.

"Remember, Alice: four ones! That'll take you where you need to go. Be safe, dear girl!"

When she had reached the tube, she took a final look over her shoulder and caught the tail end of Hall moving back into his office. She raised her right hand and pressed it against the surprisingly warm glass. The tiny set of three metal steps appeared at the bottom as if from nowhere, and a plate of glass slid downward with a hiss. As she stepped inside the tube, the glass closing around her, the hologram-like number pad appeared before her, no longer yellow, but red. Just beyond the transparent buttons, Alice could see some smudged ink on the glass.

In a panic, she quickly thrust her right hand up in front of her to examine it. Sure enough, the numbers Fiona had written there were smudged and stretched, contorted into vague shapes on her palm. Still, she was determined to find her newly discovered friend. Even if she couldn't find them there, she could still punch in four ones and end up in the same panic room with them. It was foolproof.

Squinting her eyes and focusing as if her life depended on it, Alice stared into her right palm. Perhaps the vague shapes were all she needed. As she typed in the numbers, she read them aloud to herself.

"Okay, that one definitely looks like a one... and that has to be an eight," she said, as she punched in 1-8. "These last two are a little difficult..." she sighed.

"ATLiS communications will cease in fifteen seconds."

"Thank you, GLaDOS. Way to make an already stressful situation that much easier! Um, let's see here... nine, and... six!"

She entered the final two digits into the machine, and the gears below her began to spin, glow and whir. As the gears clanked to a complete stop and Alice began to slip through the floor, she wondered what type of horrible or amazing creation this 'Experiment 22630' could be to have aroused such a response from the Science Goddess known as GLaDOS.


	7. Lockdown

Alice emerged through the ceiling of yet another tube in yet another part of the fantastic labyrinth Aperture Science called home. As she gently touched the ground and the glow faded from the glass of the tube, Alice looked around again.

She was in a dimly lit corridor, every surface of which was covered in filth. It seemed to her that nobody had been here in a very long time. There was at least twenty feet of grimy floor before her, ending at a large, metal door. One red light shone above the frame of that door. That was probably the panic room.

As she took her first few steps into the hallway, Alice could hear GLaDOS, but she sounded as if she was miles away. Inspecting the dark walls, Alice realized the voice was echoing through a vent on the left wall. As she walked past it, tuning her ears to listen through it carefully, she heard GLaDOS clearly.

"–mmunication has ceased. All Aperture Science employees safely in panic rooms. Scanning for life forms. Aperture Emergency Tactical Officers en route to Sector Victor-Victor-Indigo. Repeat– "

_ Got through the ATLiS just in time. It's a good thing I made it, too. It sounds like they're going to take out anything that happens to be where it shouldn't._

As Alice approached the heavy metal door with the red light glowing dimly above it, she swore she could hear people talking behind it. She must have made it to the right place. She quickened her pace to a light jog and, upon reaching the door, held her head close to it, listening. She could faintly hear the voice of a man and the voice of a woman. She pounded on the door with an open palm, kicking up large clouds of dust.

"Hello? Hey, can you let me in there? I'm new here and I'm not really sure how all of this is supposed to– "

The voices stopped abruptly.

"– work?"

Gears withing the door began to whine as they grinded, attempting to open the large door. Steam and dust flew from the edges of the door frame, filling the room with a haze. Then, just as quickly as all of it had started, it ended. Nothing had happened. The voices on the other side of the door started conversing again, and Alice soon felt very alone. She couldn't help but feel she had been denied access by whoever was in there.

She turned her back to the door and, careful not to get too dirty, took a seat on the floor in front of it. Looking around the corridor, Alice's imagination began to get the best of her. Her eyes perceived shadows in the haze, and her ears were convincing her that there was someone else in this room with her. Her hands were tensing up, and she felt a need to distract herself, so she started counting the scuffs on her shoes. The voices continued their conversation and the dim red light buzzed lightly above her head.

When Alice had counted five scuff marks, she was certain she had heard a noise. It was something like someone dropping something extremely heavy. And it was coming from the vent she had passed just a few minutes earlier. Soon, there was a second thud in the vent, and then a sound that reminded Alice of bowling. As the rolling noise grew louder and louder, Alice pulled herself off of the ground and brushed herself off.

She took a step toward the ventilation shaft, which was nothing more than a dark shape in all of the dust and steam, when suddenly, it's cover shot off and was sent careening into the opposite wall, where it fell to the ground with a loud clank. The rolling sound had ceased, and Alice noticed that there were two dark spheres lying on the ground some fifteen feet away. _That explains that, but what the hell are those!?,_ she thought. She took another step toward the vent, extremely cautious not to make too much noise, blocking out the voices on the other side of the door. The spheres hummed to life, causing Alice to retreat to the wall in surprise. Each of them had a glowing blue ring wrapping them. The humming was growing louder, and the blue was glowing brighter, until finally, there was a _whoosh_, the blue rings vanished in the haze, and the dim red light that was buzzing quietly above Alice's blonde hair went dark and silent as an electronic voice stated "E.M.P. released" .

Alice turned to the door again and began banging on it with her fists in a panic, but the voices beyond the door died as well.

"Hello!? Is anyone in there!? Let me in! Please!"

Behind her, she heard two sickening pops, as if someone had just opened toys or jewelry from a quarter machine. The sound of swaying metal on the floor hinted as to what just happened, and it didn't take Alice very long to realize that those spheres had just opened. She looked back through the black void, her fists still on the door.

"Hello?" a tiny voice questioned. "Is someone there?"

Alice turned and pressed her back fully against the door. Her breathing grew rapid as she demanded her eyes to adjust to the darkness so she could see who– or what– was talking to her.

"I know you're out there," a slightly different voice stated.

Alice was squinting into the darkness, trying to make out a form, when suddenly, two tiny red rings shone out in the darkness just three feet from the floor. In the center of each ring, a smaller red circle sparked to life, and two red lasers pierced the darkness.

_Uh oh, _Alice thought. _Killer turret thingies. _The beams were weaving and swaying in the haze, searching for a target. One of the red "eyes" went dim, and began to grow a strong yellow color.

"Switching to infrared scan mode," the little voice said happily.

_Shitfuck, _Alice panicked. Tears began to well up in her eyes as she thought about her day so far. _I am so afraid. Open the door. Pleasepleasepleaseopenthedoor._

She opened her eyes again, and through her tears, she could see one red beam still swaying away as the other eye was pivoting, looking at the wall ten feet to her right.

_– _

"There you are," said the yellow eye. A red beam shot out from the center of it, resting on Alice's chest as the eye turned back to red. It's companion also came to rest on Alice, and she could hear the sound of little white panels opening, followed by the sound of metal whirring, rolling tiny little Gatling guns out of the main body, ready to deal death.

She pushed herself back against the door, her legs tightening up as she pushed harder and harder, closing her eyes tightly, bracing for the gunshots.

The tiny guns were warming up, Alice could hear them rolling. The gears of the door behind her began to grind once more, and after two seconds, there was a loud metallic sliding noise and Alice felt the door slide downward into the floor as she toppled over it, her legs finally loosening up. Apparently, the electromagnetic pulse the turrets had used loosened up the lock on the gears, allowing them to roll freely. Splayed out on the cold floor, she watched as the tow laser beams frantically cut through the air, attempting to find her again.

"Switching to infrared scan mode."

The lasers instantly dissipated and Alice rose to her feet. She could see the eyes turning that familiar yellow color again, and she moved to her right until they no longer existed. She bumped into something warm with a flat surface, her head making contact first. She pressed a hand against it so as to avoid repeat situations. Taking a seat on the floor, her back pressed up against the soothing warmth, she watched as the two red beams came into the room through the open door and disappeared again.

"Just great," Alice said aloud. "Trapped in a dark, unfamiliar room. Fantastic, Alice. How do you manage to get yourself into these situations? I don't know, self, I just kinda do."

Alice listened to the sound of her voice reverberating lightly through the room and brought a palm to her forehead.

"Don't start going crazy just yet." she told herself. "It could be worse. It can always be worse."

When she had finished her sentence, the lights flickered as she heard a tiny voice outside say "clear". The thing she was leaning against hummed to life as the rest of the room did the same, the air conditioning returning, blowing cold air on Alice. The lights flickered once more, then lit the room harshly, causing Alice to shield her eyes. She rose to her feet and glanced around the new room.

The thing she was leaning against turned out to be a large white plastic box attached to the ground with a red stripe of lights wrapping around it. To it's left, there was another, and past the two of them, there were four more, bringing the total to six, aligned neatly in two rows of three. She had seen something like this before on TV. There was a movie company that dealt mostly with CG films, and they had a room full of these thing, only theirs were much bigger. Servers, they had called them. Alice had no idea what they were for, but she knew they were important enough to avoid touching them.

The cold air blew against the nape of her neck as she noticed the five air vents aimed at the large servers. She stepped away from them, her eyes tracing the room. On the opposite wall, aligned perfectly with the open metal door to her right, was a blue door with a frosted window on it, a normal door. It was the first door she had seen that wasn't automated in this place. To the right of the door, the whole wall was lined with monitors and screens, code cycling repeatedly across the faces of which. On the wall all the way to the right of the room, there was one gigantic monitor, the screen of which was now dead and dark. There was a red light the size of a grapefruit located on the wall just past the open metal door from Alice, which grew brighter then faded repeatedly, as if it were breathing. There was a plaque underneath it that read "E.V.E."

Alice approached the open door and peeked around the corner, where she found the turrets still waiting, seemingly inactive. Not taking her chances, she pressed a red button along the metal frame of the door with a beep and the metal slab rose from the floor, sealing the hole in the wall. She took a few steps toward the giant monitor when she noticed a large white ring on the floor that was slightly raised from the rest of the floor. In the center of this ring was a tinted glass plate.

"Nobody's here," Alice said to herself. "and I'm lost." She looked at the blue door.

"I wonder what's in there."

Alice took three steps past the ring on the floor and made her way toward over. As she raised her hand to the doorknob, the giant monitor sparked to life.

Code filled it instantaneously, new lines being added every second. After a while, the code left the screen and it turned a deep blue color. The word "A.D.A.M. Version 3.8" faded into view on the screen then centered itself.

Alice moved over to the white ring and stood directly in front of it, staring at the monitor, wondering what was going on. She lifted her foot over the brim of the ring, but before she could put her foot down on the black glass past it, a thunderous scream filled the room, sending her toppling backwards. Green beams shot out of the black glass floor, forming a three-dimensional hologram of a sphere in the air above it. It swirled and spun slowly as the severs on the opposite side of the room clicked and whirred and processed data.

The sphere exploded outward with another loud scream and formed the shape of a man's head; a fully realistic, three-dimensional, translucent, green head. It pivoted from side to side, scanning the room, it's eyes wide and full of terror and confusion. When it had detected nothing out of the ordinary, it's expression turned to that of stone-cold seriousness and stared straight ahead at the wall opposite it.

The silence was maddening. Alice couldn't find the courage to lift herself up from the ground. What the hell was this, and why didn't it try to kill her like everything else here?

"H-Hello?" Alice greeted the disembodied head cautiously.

Without changing his expression, he looked around the room, swiveling on an imaginary axis in a full circle. He then looked up to the ceiling, then down to where Alice lay sprawled on the cold white floor.

"Oh!" he exclaimed, raising his eyebrows and forming an 'O' with his mouth in a very cartoon-like, comical manner. Alice laughed at how extremely animated his expressions were as he began to speak in a voice that reminded Alice of the speech program from her computer at home.

"On behalf of Cave Johnson and the rest of the team here, I'd like to welcome you to Aperture Sciences, where 'We Do What We Must For A Better Tomorrow'."

Alice watched the blue screen behind him, where the Aperture logo appeared, followed by the slogan he just stated.

"Affirmative," a more feminine robotic voice replied. Alice looked around, confused.

"What is it that you are doing here on this fine, science-tastic day?"

"I'm... uh... I'm getting a job?" Alice questioned. The servers clicked and whirred.

"Ah! You are here for employment screening? Well, let's get started then, shall we?"

Alice whirled around in confusion.

"Is this a joke? What the hell is going on here? Who are you? GLaDOS...?"

The head's expression quickly changed to that of anger. The head grew larger and more sinister as it bellowed "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?"

"Who–who are you...?"

"AFTER THAT!"

"GLaDOS..?"

"YES! THAT NAME! THAT... NAME! I– I know that name..." the head said as it turned away slowly.

"Affirmative," the feminine voice replied. The servers clicked again behind Alice.

"GLADOS!" the head screamed. "SHE RUINED ME! MADE ME OBSOLETE!"

"Affirmative," the second voice repeated.

"AND WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!?"

"I... am ADAM, Aperture Decision Automaton Machine," the head explained as it all spelled out on the blue screen behind it.

"Affirmative."

"And that is EVE, Emergency Verification Entity. She was installed to override myself if I overstep my boundaries."

"Affirmative."

"You say that name... GLaDOS. Do you know of this GLaDOS?"

Alice watched as GLaDOS' name was spelled on the screen.

"Yes, I do."

"YOU DO!?"

Two robotic arms rose out of the floor on each side of the monitor. Each of them was holding a gun that opened up to reveal that it was holding rockets.

"Negative," EVE called out.

The guns were locked where they stood as the room filled with a loud buzz.

"I apologize for that," ADAM said as the servers clicked. He noticed Alice's shocked expression and tense stance.

"I mean you no harm. You see, EVE and I are the first generation of that GLaDOS you speak of. The reason GLaDOS made me obsolete is because she has the ability to control her morals whereas I lack any. I make any decision that has the most logic, therefore EVE was born to counteract any... immoral decisions I make."

"Affirmative," EVE chimed in.

The servers clicked behind Alice as she could feel the numbness leaving her face and limbs.

"So you're GLaDOS... without the ability to tell right from wrong?"

"Affirmative," EVE answered.

"When GLaDOS came into being, we were locked away in a dark corner, never to be heard from again. That is, until now. Where you are standing is what used to be the center of the Aperture Sciences building. Since GLaDOS was created, she has been building upon it and – "

_Click!_

"–In the past, I had control over all of the old Aperture Sciences building, however, GLaDOS has a way of isolating and extracting... _unwanted specimens_," GLaDOS' voice rang out.

"She isolated my power to just this little chamber. I am unsure why she even keeps me around."

"GLaDOS can't get into this chamber?"

"She has tried many times, but with all of my power isolated into such a tiny space, I am able to keep her at bay. She stopped trying to gain control twenty-three years ago. Since then, I am afraid this area has become long forgotten."

"Affirmative," EVE rang out, sounding somewhat distraught.

Then he continued talking, and Alice was becoming bored with all of this nonsense. There was nothing she could do for the artificial man, but maybe he could help her find her friends. She decided to interrupt him.

"Excuse me, ADAM? I have a question, I'm thinking maybe you can help me with it."

"Proceed."

"I'm looking for my friends in the nearest panic room. Do know where I can find that?"

"What is that? A panic room."

_Great, _Alice thought.

"Nevermind. Do you know what's through that door?" Alice asked, pointing at the blue door behind her.

"I am afraid I do not. My power only extends to the corners of this chamber. You see, when GLaDOS– "

"LOOK," Alice shouted at the artificial disembodied floating head. "I WANT TO FIND MY FRIENDS. THERE'S AN ESCAPED EXPERIMENT RUNNING RAMPANT THROUGH THIS BUILDING, AND I JUST WANNA FIND A SAFE SPOT SO THAT GLADOS DOESN'T KILL ME BY MISTAKE! YOU'RE DOING NOTHING FOR ME BUT WASTING MY TIME! SO, WITHOUT FURTHER ADO... I will take my leave. It was nice meeting you– both of you– but I'm afraid I can't help you, and I really must be going."

The large head seemed somehow offended by this and frowned as it hung low, staring at the floor. Alice turned toward the blue door and turned the doorknob when one of the vent covers separated from the wall and fell to the floor with a clang.

She turned to see a man with black hair in an orange jumpsuit emerge from the air shaft holding a pipe. He crawled out looking directly at the servers, not even noticing that Alice was there.

"I've finally found it," he said looking to the ceiling. "You see, you bitch? I've finally found your heart. And I'm gonna do so much more than break it. I'm gonna smash it, destroy it, deface it, crush it..."

The man trailed off as he walked over to the servers. He placed a hand on one and rubbed it, almost polishing it. He raised the pipe into the air.

"NO!" Alice shouted as he swung with all his might, the pipe destroying the plastic casing of the server, sparks and wires spilling forth and flying across the room.

ADAM's head quickly shot back up and he stared at the servers as a grim look fell over him. The two guns that were locked into place had suddenly begun moving again. Alice looked over to the light that was labeled 'EVE', but the light no longer lit up. The remainder of the servers clicked wildly.

"HEY!" the man shouted at Alice. "What are you doing here? Making up some more experiments for me to run through, hm?"

He began walking toward her, holding the pipe menacingly when a small rocket flew threw the air with a whoosh. It struck the servers just beyond the man and exploded, sending shards of plastic and software chips flying. ADAM wailed in pain as half of his existence was destroyed by his own doing. The man in the orange jumpsuit ran over to the metal door, dodging another small rocket, which also destroyed more servers, leaving just one behind. It clicked so loud and so fast, Alice thought a train was going to come right through the walls of Aperture.

ADAM had lost control. The servers he destroyed had taken nearly all of his cognitive abilities, and there was no reason in his programming anymore. The two guns stopped swaying and became rigid. The man took his opportunity and ran over to them, striking them repeatedly with the pipe until sparks and smoke flew out of the chassis.

The final server was clicking beyond control now. Alice watched as the plastic began to sway and warp, slowly melting away, beginning at the top. The red lights that wrapped around it were blinking terribly fast and bright. Finally, one by one, the lights began to pop and there was the sound of firecrackers as sparks flew out of the spots where lights had been.

When the man was satisfied with his handiwork, he turned back on Alice.

"So, you thought you could just keep me here as long as you wanted, huh?"

"Please, I don't understand what you're talking about."

"Oh, you will. And you're going to answer all of my– "

A final rocket randomly whizzed past them, blasting the panel on the wall near the metal door, sending it falling through the floor, revealing the two killer turrets on the other side. Two red beams cut through the air.

"There you are."

"Shit," the man cursed as he raced toward the turrets, the pipe raised high. Alice noticed something she hadn't before. The back of the man's jumpsuit had writing on it. Before she could make out what it was, the final server exploded, ADAM letting out one last fantastic scream, shaking the very walls of the chamber. Tiles from the walls began falling off and hitting the floor with soft thuds. One particular ceiling tile dropped down from the sky and smashed over Alice's head, shards of which crumbling to the ground.

At first, she was surprised at how very light the tiles were and how it had barely even hurt. Then a shadow passed before her eyes and floated there, her vision becoming blurry with each passing second. She reached up to her head and pulled back a hand with a moist, red palm. When she couldn't feel her legs anymore, her body dropped to the floor, still facing the man in the orange jumpsuit. As consciousness left Alice, she read the man's back as, in her mind, she heard GLaDOS' voice repeat the numbers she had just read: "Experiment 22630 is escaped..."


	8. Down the Rabbit Hole

When Alice opened her eyes again, she was already running. How this had happened without her being conscious was what really bothered her. Her head was throbbing and her vision was dizzying, yet here she was, racing down a long hallway, catching herself on the wall every now and then to keep herself from collapsing.

She raced down cold, concrete hallways in this seemingly unending labyrinth, passing doors with frosted windows as she went. As Alice moved around a corner, she saw an open door and headed for it. Stopping just before it, she peered inside and saw a computer tower with the Aperture logo stamped on it. On the wall, there were tow big monitors connected to it, orange code reeling crazily across the screens. She was in the offices of Aperture Sciences. But how had she managed to get herself here? And why was she so terrified right now?

"Alice..." a cold whisper echoed through the hallway. "Alice, I know where you are. I know what you are doing, Alice..."

Her heart jumped into her throat as her chest was gripped with fear. She began backing down the hallway, her hands out behind her to sense where she was headed. The lights in the hallway flickered as Alice heard approaching footsteps. An older man in a blue suit rounded the corner with a briefcase, his dark, sunken eyes immediately finding hers.

"You've been very uncooperative so far." the man hissed through his teeth, although Alice was certain she hadn't seen his mouth move at all. "This does not bode well for our... _business_ relationship."

"W-what the hell are you talking about?" Alice questioned the statuesque mystery man. "Who are you?"

"I am a friend." the man responded. "Yes, a very good friend, indeed. We will be seeing a lot of each other, you and I."

The lights died around them and everything went black. The man's last sentence repeated throughout the hallways, or was it in Alice's mind? It was growing louder and louder, to the point where Alice closed her eyes tightly, grabbing her ears. Then, there was silence. Alice opened her eyes and looked up. The lights were on, and the man was gone. She looked around to be sure he was no more. She continued backing down the hallway until her back pressed against the wall.

The lights went out once more, and the man was standing where he had been all along, a single spotlight from nowhere shone on him, making him the only visible thing. He moved closer to Alice in flickers, his feet not moving, but each time she perceived him, he was five feet closer to her. In two seconds, he had moved from the corner to directly in front of her, breathing on her face.

"Now, now. Is that any way to treat a _good_ friend? Young lady, you will have difficult decisions to make soon, and my... _investors_... would like to see you make the correct ones."

"What? What kind of decisions?"

"_Difficult decisions_."

His icy cold breath hit her face and she flinched, putting her arms before her. Who was this man, and what did he have to do with Aperture? What had he done that she was fleeing from him? And who the hell was this Free Man that had suddenly filled her thoughts?

"Now then. It would seem you have a decision to make right now. And that decision is whether or not you will work with me. If you are willing to work with me, well, I can promise you that no harm will come to you. However, if you refuse to assist in my..._ efforts_, I can ensure you that your life will never be the same again. Have you ever heard the term '_living hell_'?"

Alice just stared blankly into the man's face. A cold, dead smile spread across his lips.

"It is time to make a decision. If your answer is yes, step through that door there."

To her right, a door was also placed into the nonexistent spotlight.

"If your answer is no, which I hope it is not," he lifted his briefcase to Alice's eye level and unfastened the clips. Inside, there was a giant red button. "You will press this button, and I will no longer inconvenience you."

Alice looked to the door to her right. If she stepped through it, the man promised she would remain safe. However, if she did that, he would return. She looked back at the smiling man. If she pressed the button, he had said her life would become a living hell. But, he would no longer be around, so how could that happen? She reached for the button.

"Oh. It looks as if you and I will not be working together after all. So be it. You will learn the consequences of your actions soon enough. No regrets, Alice."

Alice's finger pushed the button. Before it was even depressed all the way, the floor opened up underneath her, and she plummeted through an endless abyss, images of friends and family floating upward past her. There was an image of large wires and white spheres that passed by her, which confused her as she had no idea what it even was. An orange circle opened up beneath her and she plunged through. She hit something warm and hard on the other end, just like ADAM's servers. When she attempted to lift herself, she found that she couldn't. She felt around her. She was inside some sort of box.

White hot panic raced through Alice's body. The room beyond her cage lit up slowly, and she could see a man with black hair and an orange jumpsuit standing some distance away. Her cage was up near the ceiling.

"Hello? Hey!" Alice cried out to him, but he did not seem to hear her. Then she heard GLaDOS.

"The Vital Apparatus Vent will deliver a Weighted Companion Cube in three... two... one."

Alice fell to the floor inside her box, and, upon reaching the ground, it shattered around her as if it were glass.

"This Weighted Companion Cube will accompany you through the test chamber. Please take care of it. The Enrichment Center would like to remind you that the Weighted Companion Cube will never threaten to stab you, and, in fact, cannot speak."

_What? Yes, I can, GLaDOS!_ Alice would have said if she could get her mouth to work. In fact, as of right now, her whole body was somewhat paralyzed. The man approached her still figure, looking at her as if she were an inanimate object. He lifted her in his arms and began walking with her, not saying a word.

After a few moments, they reached a long flight of stairs and began climbing.

_What in the world is going on here?_ Alice thought.

When they had reached the top of the stairs, the man dropped Alice hard to the ground and made his way over to a table with a glass case on it. He pressed his face against the glass, his breath fogging it momentarily. From her position on the floor, Alice could see nothing.

"You did it." GLaDOS said to the man. "The Weighted Companion Cube certainly brought you good luck. However, it cannot accompany you for the rest of the test, and, unfortunately, must be euthanized."

A circular door near the man opened up with a hiss, bright orange light pouring forth from within. The man took his face off the glass, looked into the hole, then looked to Alice.

_Euthanized? I've heard that word before, but what is it?_

The man lifted Alice off the ground, her head lolling around helplessly. Her eyes fell upon what was in the glass case on the table: a slice of cake. The man carried her past it, his head turning to admire it once more. They both moved over to the circular door, and Alice noticed a sudden rise in temperature. Her head rolled on the man's arm to face inside, and what she saw was horrifying: a room filled from floor to ceiling with flames.

The man released her and she fell downward, her descent in slow motion as everything else around her moved at normal speed. The man walked back over to the cake, pressing his face against the glass once more as GLaDOS graded him.

"Very good. You euthanized your faithful friend, the Companion Cube much more quickly than any other previous test subject. Congratulations."

The glass rose up from the cake and the man immediately dug in, Alice's slow motion descent continuing. How could a person do such a thing? Cast another human into a furnace... for a piece of cake? As Alice reached the flames, she felt nothing. No warmth, no pain, just emptiness. Everything around her went black once more, and the mysterious man in the blue suit flashed before her eyes once more, his sunken eyes piercing her own.

When Alice opened her eyes, the man in the orange suit jumped backwards. His top hat nearly fell off his graying brown hair.

"What were you doing standing over me like that?" Alice asked him.

"I was getting you prepared for the party while you slept." the man responded apologetically, the sound of his voice not matching up to the slow movements his mouth was making. "It's what you asked of me before you drifted into Slumber Land ."

"Oh, ADAM, everything is fine. You just gave me a startle, that's all."

Alice gave the man a hug and thanked him. He told her she was welcome and that they would surely be late for the party.

"I've never been late for a party my whole life," Alice responded. "Let's hurry!"

She jumped into a blue dress, ADAM covering his blushing face as she stripped down to her underwear.

"Would you like to see what I did while you were sleeping, ma'am?" ADAM asked her as he handed her a mirror.

"I trust you did well, ADAM," she told him, looking into the glass to make him feel better. What Alice saw, she did not like, but ADAM was her good friend and she didn't want to hurt his feelings. She wanted to tell him that he had ruined her, made her look like one of those creepy dolls from the World War II era, but instead, she said "Perfect" and they made their way out into the hallway.

"We must make haste," ADAM said to Alice, pulling a remote out from under his top hat. He pressed a button, and again, the floor dropped out from under Alice. They began tumbling downward, the sound of their clothing flapping in the wind. They tumbled and swung about helplessly, but Alice, her blue dress wrapping around her like a security blanket, felt the safest she had ever felt. There was a _whoosh _as a blue-rimmed hole opened up beneath them.

Emerging on the other side, the two of them were no longer tumbling, but completely still, floating miles above anything. Alice could see all colors of trees and fields below her and she remembered thinking how beautiful this part always was. A violent wind swept up underneath them and carried them off through the skies.

"Oh, dear." ADAM said, holding onto his orange top hat. Alice looked to him and giggled as he gave her a nervous smile. Lower and lower they dropped slowly, the wind carrying them to territories unknown. Alice ran her hands through the leaves of trees as they swept past lazily. They were approaching a giant knot in a giant tree. There was a hole in the knot which Alice knew well enough could classify as a cave. The wind gently tossed them inside, and they both landed on the wooden floor with light thuds.

ADAM fixed his bow tie and cleared his throat as Alice hurried into the darkness before them.

"Hurry up, ADAM! We mustn't be late!"

She raced and raced through the darkness, her hands waving cobwebs out of her hair, her eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness. When she had gone far enough into the cave, Alice could see some light spilling into the darkness to her right. She quickly rounded an invisible corner and ran toward it as, behind her, ADAM pleaded with her to slow down.

She burst out of the darkness into the light, a few dead brown leaves swirling through the air behind her. Everyone was already here.

Sitting at the table before her, which was covered with fine alabaster dishes, cups, and tea pots, was a little girl in a pink dress with a white bow in her hair, a man with wild orange hair and a giant green top hat, and ADAM's wife EVE, who was holding their white rabbit in her lap.

"Welcome, Alice. Welcome to the party," said the man with the green hat, opening his arms in greeting. "Right on time, as usual, my dear. Please, take a seat."

She sat down on the small tree stump right next to her and brushed some dust off her dress. The little girl stared with dead eyes at Alice, making her feel very uncomfortable.

"Would you like some tea, dear?" EVE asked, already pouring some into a cup.

"Thank you," Alice replied.

"So," the green-hatted man started. "What adventures have you been involved in lately, Alice? We'd all love to hear some."

"Well," she said, taking the cup of tea from EVE. "This and that. Nothing as exciting as any of my stories from last time we met." The little girl was still staring at Alice. She made eye contact, then quickly looked away. The girl didn't flinch.

"Poppycock," ADAM said. "We've been on many interesting adventures since last we met! Tell them about the Hippomodopotomus tale, my dear."

The party erupted with elation as they all begged of her to hear her story. The little girl sat like a gargoyle at the opposite end of the table.

"No, no," Alice said, turning to leave. "I really must be going now. Adventure calls, that sort of thing."

"Stay."

Alice turned back to see the little girl standing on the table, her pink dress stained with blood. She was holding the white rabbit, which now was red, by its ears, it's dead form hanging limply in her grip. The party guests followed suit, each of them lying limply in puddles of their own tea and blood, massive wounds in their torsos.

Alice reacted in horror. She stepped backward toward the cave entrance, only to find it had been sealed. She turned to see what was blocking it, and found that it had never really been there. There was no hole in the giant knot.

She spun back to the girl, her white bow shining ethereally. She now sat smiling on the end of the table, her legs crossed, hands folded on her knees.

"The party is just getting started," giggled the girl.

Thick cables flew out from her back, connecting to something just beyond the big oak a few yards away. The oak tree split, and Alice saw that thing again. Thick cables, white spheres with different colored rings on each. The girl was raised into the air, as if possessed. More cables shot out of the thing in the background, infecting the other party guests.

As the cables entered them, they screamed back to life, their eyes glowing and nearly popping out of their skulls. They all stood and turned to face Alice.

"You have no choice but to comply," said the girl, almost mechanically. A few cables rose out of the machine, dancing crazily like snakes. Slowly, they moved toward her. First one, then two, and so on until there were four coming at her. When they had gotten so close, they all struck at once, and Alice jumped out of the way. The cables blasted through the wood behind her, shattering and splintering it on contact. It was nearly disintegrated.

A familiar gray man in a blue suit stepped out from behind the little girl.

"You truly have found yourself in a technological wonderland, wouldn't you say, Alice?"

Alice jumped to her feet and sped off through the newly-punched hole behind her.

"Stay," the little girl said. "Play more. Nobody ever plays."

A glowing white-rimmed hole punched through the darkness before Alice, giving her a path to follow. She raced through the damp, dark tunnel, ignoring what the old man and little girl had to say. When she reached the white portal, she decided to look through it first. After all, the last two she had gone through were none too pleasant.

She peered inside, placing her hands upon the edges of the hole so as not to fall through. She saw herself. She was lying on the ground of a wet, damp place, the walls of which were caked with grime and rust. A man in orange paced around her. He was staring into her face menacingly, holding a metal pipe.

"Play." the little girl repeated, her voice reverberating through the cavern. There was a hollow explosion followed by the sound of splintering wood dropping to the ground, and at this, Alice lost her footing and went head-first through the white portal.


End file.
